Let the holidays begin!

Hey guys!

12am last night I dropped my final paper in my department's mailbox and officially finished my first semester of graduate studies! It was a scary and stressful semester but I made it through! Now I can finally relax and start enjoying the holiday season, there is lots of baking and boring treadmill crisp morning runs to be had! Not to mention Hughie and I will be leaving for Florida on the 22nd to visit my parents! I'm looking forward to getting a little sun in the dead of winter :)

Garlic
The last time we talked I had a bit of a crisis on my hands, an abundance of garlic. So I took Small Town Girl's advice and cooked up some 20 clove garlic! It.was.amazing.

I some how lost half of the pictures I took while cooking so you can enjoy the visual stimulation of spices in a bowl and a pan full-o-buttah!

Who doesn't like admiring butter anyways?

You can find the recipe I used here!

And since we're on the topic of butter...

I made these red velvet cupcakes for a university potluck and they are YUMMY!

Oh...helloo.

I followed the recipe from Cook's Illustrated and added a couple extra Tbsp of Cocoa.

What are you up to during the holidays?

Alanna